“A Loaf of Bread” (Book Twenty-Two of the Big Kid Picture Book Battle)

The inside cover of this book says it is called in English “A Loaf of Bread–A Folktale from Lithuania.”

However, it is originally a Japanese book, by a Japanese author (Risako Uchida) and a Japanese illustrator (Seiichi Horiuchi.)

So even though it’s a Lithuanian story, it’s not a translated book–does that make sense?

The Japanese title is “Pan no Kakera to Chiisana Akuma.” (“The Loaf of Bread and the Little Devil.”)

Pan=Bread

Kakera=a part of

Chiisana=small

Akuma=devil

The illustration style is a sort of style I’ve seen often in Japanese picture books. Not overly sweet, not overly cute, not overly pretty. It’s not my favorite style (I’m a sweet-cute-pretty type of girl.) But it’s interesting.

Basically, the story is that a little “devil” (some sort of Lithiuanian creature from folklore?) steals some bread from a woodcutter. The other mythological creatures shame him for stealing from a poor woodcutter, so he makes it up to the woodcutter and enables him to get rich.

I tried to find this story in English on the internet, but alas, I could not.